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This two c30 tape box set brings together four side long slices of brutal yet macabre & darkly atmospheric slabs of HNW from these two highly respected projects from the USA HNW scene. Each project has a tape a piece of material, and each tape here is highly consistent in it’s seared yet creatively atmosphere heavy ‘walls’.
The Skull Defekts are a well known Swedish noise rock band active since the early 2000s and their latest work "Peer Amid" is released by Thrill Jockey records on CD, LP and as mp3 download.
Kourosh Yaghmaei, in a perfect world, should be a name that’s already known. His story is one that is one part bittersweet and another triumphant. His background is as a Persian musician, late 60’s early 70’s Rock and Psychedelic influenced, incorporating traditional Persian scales and composition to his works; he introduced Rock/Pop music to Iran.
Carrion Black Pit is the horror themed HNW & AHNW project of São Paulo, Brazil based Elias who is most known for the great Harsh Noise /Industrial/HNW/noised-up Sword-and-Sandal soundtrack project Sleep of Ages. “Anatomy Studies” is the projects 3rd release, and just like his work with SOA’s, CBP sound is very difficult to tie into any one genre as there’s elements of creepy manipulated field recordings, horror movie soundtracking, and horror fed noise touches here amongst the Hash Noise Wall & Ambient Harsh Noise Wall Structures.
“The Eternal Present” is the 8th volume in the Infinity series- an open ended and identical artwork based collection of releases put out by Uk based Sweet Solitude label. Each volume sees a different world wide HNW act attempting ambient and experimental forms of walled noise. A View From Nihil is deeply nihilistic yet often creative & inventive HNW project that’s all the work of Irishman Andrew McQuaid, who now resides in Scotland. The project has put out releases ever so often since it started in 2007, and really is one of the least prolific of euro HNW scene…through what ever the project puts out is usually something rather special & this release is no different.
Ikodora '65 is a relatively new Dutch project who boils up a loud mixture of HNW & Harsh noise. The project has been in existence since 2008, but really seems to have only come into full & active existence this year as it put out most of the nine items in it’s discography in 2011. “HNW2 (Cetus)” is the projects 8th release & it comes in the form of a 3inch cdr.
Like its title implies, this latest set of recordings from Portland-based electroacoustician Daniel Menche, is about elemental violence. Apparently formed from field recordings of storms combined with “destroyed electronics”, Menche’s reliably powerful dramas here portend and portray the unstoppable destructive forces of nature.
“Untitled” is a relatively short slice of crusty, pummelling and unflinching walled noise from the French HNW maestro Vomir. On offer here is a 3inch cdr that features a single nineteen minute & thirty eight second track.
This CDR release, sporting two untitled tracks, brings us harsh noise the way it was in the 90's: chaotic, freewheeling analog improvisations with full spectrum thickness, lurching between mulched up grinds, unforgiving high pitched screech and synth bass squelches. To my ear, the sounds Novasak gets here were likely all sourced from the rich tones of a vintage synthesizer. This release is available in both tape & CDR format
Percht have put some time and effort into the packaging of this cd, which is a shame - because it immediately raises a few questions. Its dominated by woodland imagery (bark, leaves) with a spiders web on the back and a totem-like mask on the front: so far nothing dramatically interesting or troublesome.
Apes of a Cold God is the debut album by Swedish band Lovac. Although the band has been around for a bit (performing under the name Down in June as a Death in June cover band) this is their first presentation as Lovac. As far as debuts go, this is quite good. The only puzzlement one may have is trying to figure out where you’ve heard it before. Lovac is able to construct melodies that sound so familiar yet are new. Yes there is a Death in June influence (and moments that sound akin to Sagittarius and Seelenlicht too) but given their neofolk/industrial label one can hardly fault them.
An unwritten law of black metal says that if a band has GOAT spelled in their moniker then they must be good. It's almost incredible how often this assumption is right, and this is no exception: Archgoat are a legendary Finnish black metal band with a very scarce albeit extra-kvlt discography and totally lurid, perverted style and attitude.
Italian Black Metal outfit Abhor return with their fifth studio album to date via a new deal with American label Moribund Cult. Abhor’s particular strain of Black Metal is highly strung out on the theatrical side of the fence, utilising heavy amounts of keyboard throughout, with hints of gothic sensibility. Interesting you may think…and some elements are, but overall the album fails to stand up very well against the current new wave of avant-garde BM contemporaries. Trying to fit in somewhere between ‘La Masquerade Infernale’ period Arcturus with their OTT atmospherics and operatic scope and the disorientating playing style of French BM act Blut Aus Nord, Abhor give it their all, but just don’t quite come up to par.
“Digital Fire” shows a very different side to this always creative & often quirky Irish noise & HNW project. This CDR offers up a rather straight faced & atmospheric collection of noise pieces that mixes together: shifting noise drone matter, moody feedback scaping, and organic digital meets analogue noise texturing.
“Spiral (Dedicated To Chop Shop)” is the 10th in the series of twelve monthly 3 inch CDR releases that are been put out through-out 2011 by Ireland's Bored Bear Recordings. Each release in the series celebrates, pays tribute and chronicles one of the many projects of highly influential & respected Texas noise artist Richard Ramirez.
Over his 30 plus year career US ambient legend Steve Roach has released many classic, influential & highly respected slices of ambient muisc. But with-out doubt one of the most influential, often quoted and most loved recordings of Roach's career is the Quiet Music series which originally appeared in 1998. This reissue brings together all three volumes of the series for the first time, and with out a doubt it's a lush & inviting stone cold ambient classic that hasn’t dated a bit over the years.
“Treatise” is the new & rather epic release from this Canadian based project who mixers up a creative & atmospheric take on HNW, with elements of plan harsh noise & all of manner creative yet brutal sonic fair. This new release comes in the form of a four C62 box set-so there’s over four hours worth of clever, well thought-out & battering noise on offer here that tends more towards the Walled noise side of the noise spectrum.
Olekranon, the obscure and lo-fi one man industrial/noise project of American Ryan Huber, has finally gotten a real CD release with "Bilal", his 5th full length and 7th overall release since 2007. It's immediately obvious the man has a head full of dramatic, bombastic musical ideas, but how do these come across on the actual recording? Read on, and I'll attempt to put it into words.
A very simply packaged cdr here, from Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its another good example of effective presentation, without massive expense or intricate efforts: a stark, black and white folded insert with just name, title and recording details, and the same picture of a low, wide house on either side. Or is it the same picture? After a week of having the cd sleeve next to me, I suddenly noticed that the house on the rear had a different window layout; but, more importantly, there was also a white, shadowed figure in one of these windows. Its a nice, simple touch.
Skullflower is one of the most known names to come out of the 80s English power electronics scene, but over the years they turned their sound more towards noisy rock and psychedelic guitar noise. And with-in each chosen sonic style they’ve usually obtaining excellent results, unfortunately "Fucked On A Pile Of Corpses" sounds like a cheap lo-fi dictaphone recording of a Skullflower gig, so what good (if any) the CD format does is completely lost.
“The Marshall Suite” originally appeared back in 1999, and it showed this distinctive & cult band mixing together elements of garage rock & rockabilly with subtle yet dramatic electroinca & techno-influenced beat structures. This new reissue offers up the original long out of print album, a disc worth of remixes and Peel session tracks, and a 3rd disc taking in a full live show from around the albums original release.
Keiichi Sugimoto, founder of the Cubic Music label, delivers another slice of intricate and precise solo output under the pseudonym Fourcolor. This release is Fourcolor’s fifth studio album to date, drenched in spaced out vibes, blissed out melodies and glitch heavy sample skipping, ‘As Pleat’ shows a depth to music which is intentionally stripped back to the bone, small snapshots of time and space with intricate sub sections dancing amongst the peripheries.
“Glaciating 1” is a truly punishing, lengthy & complete unforgiving lesson in pitch black & cold sounded HNW. This release comes in the form a c95 chrome tape, with a single side long track per side of tape.
Fallen finds us at Orcrist fifth full length release. The Italian black metal band has been churning out demos and full lengths since 1999. Together the three members Grav, Goblin and Mane create black metal somewhat akin to early Bathory. Lyrically the band embraces the themes of death, darkness and isolation.